Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou Visits Mainland China
Ma Ying-Jeou, the former president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang Party (KMT), visited the Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China and the KMT party, in Nanjing. Photo: Xinhua Press
On March 21, former Republic of China (Taiwan) president Ma Ying-Jeou announced that he was going to pay a visit to mainland China in his personal capacity with a group of students from a college program under his Ma Ying-jeou Foundation. From March 27 to April 7, he will travel around multiple major cities in mainland China including Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, and Chongqing.
According to Ma, he planned this trip during the traditional Chinese Qingming Festival to pay tribute to his ancestors that were traced to Hunan Province in mainland China. Additionally, he hoped to ease the tension between Taiwan and mainland China and promote communication between their younger generations.
Ma was the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2008 to 2016. He was from the Chinese Kuomintang Party (KMT), the ruling party of mainland China from 1927 to 1949 and of Taiwan from 1945 to 1988 under a one-party dictatorship. After Taiwan’s democratization, the KMT lost its ruling-party status to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from 2000 to 2008.
The victory of Ma in 2008 marked a return to the top leadership of Taiwan. His terms oversaw Taiwan’s recovery from the global Great Depression and further economic development after that. As president of Taiwan, he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015 and allowed the first regular tourists from mainland China to visit Taiwan. Now, the KMT party is largely seen as holding a pro-China stance in cross-strait relations.
Ma will tour some historical sites in Southern China that were closely tied to the KMT party when it was still based in mainland China. Specifically, he will visit the places that marked the KMT’s role in the republican revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty of Qing (1911 to 1912), the Northern Expedition and Reunification of China (1925 to 1927), and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 to 1945). On April 1, he will pay tribute to his ancestors in Hunan Province. Also, he will have discussions with students in multiple mainland Chinese high schools and universities.
Former president Ma Ying-Jeou will pay a visit to major Southern China to pay tribute to his ancestors in mainland China, tour historical sites tied with the Chinese Kuomintang Party, and have discussions with mainland Chinese students. Background photo: Lianhe Zao Bao
Ma and his trip are controversial. For pro-independence Taiwanese people, Ma is accused of having too close a tie with mainland China in terms of economic deals and top leader discourses. Specifically, in his first term, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a free trade area agreement with mainland China, was perceived to be passed in the Legislative Yuan (Taiwanese Congress) without disclosing information to the public and sufficient communication with industrial leaders. Ma’s inaction against this was largely seen as undemocratic and caused student demonstrations against the government.
For pro-unification mainland Chinese, he was infamous for his inaction against the DPP’s revision of the Taiwanese high school curriculum that emphasizes more Taiwanese local identity than a Chinese one.
More practically, Ma’s trip today may harm the performance of the KMT party in the upcoming presidential election of Taiwan in 2024 as it may alienate the centrist Taiwanese voters who support the status quo with mainland China and are neutral on the reunification issue.
Ma Xiaoguang, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China, expressed his support for the visit. According to him, mainland China welcomes former president Ma to pay tribute to his ancestors and tour different cities in mainland China. A prudent admiration and commemoration of ancestors in the Qingming Festival are traditions shared by the Chinese across the Taiwan Strait, he said. He also claimed that younger generations in Taiwan and mainland China are both willing to deepen their relationship and revitalize the peaceful development of cross-strait relations with their adolescent dynamics. “Mainland China wholeheartedly wishes Mr. Ying-Jeou Ma a safe and smooth trip and is ready to provide necessary assistance throughout,” added Xiaoguang.
In Taiwan, Lin Yu-ch’an, the spokesperson of the Taiwan Presidential Palace, said that they respected former President Ma’s mainland trip and have contacted relevant offices to provide necessary assistance for his safety. Moreover, Lin added, as the former head of state, Ma is expected to behave in accordance with the national interest of Taiwan in democracy, freedom, and an equal footing when communicating with mainland China.
Chang Chih-hao, the speaker of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said that Ma’s visit is an embracement of the appeasement strategy by mainland China and conveys a wrong message to the world that Taiwan is compromising under the pressure of Chinese expansion. Ma’s coordination with mainland China did not take into account the stances of the Taiwanese nation and its people, urged Chang. “The Taiwanese people do not accept a former head of state being exploited by mainland China for unification.”
Meanwhile, the incumbent president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from the DPP, Tsai Ing-wen, will visit the US. How the two concurrent trips to the two opposing global powers of the two opposing parties in Taiwan will react with each other remains uncertain.